Headsets are incredibly useful communications devices. They let you take calls while keeping your hands free to type or write. They help you to hear calls better, and they have microphones to help you sound better. And they can also double as headphones for listening to music or podcasts as you work.
It’s no wonder that office headsets are one of the most popular business communications tools around.
But nothing’s perfect.
As we’ve learned more about health and safety, it’s become clear that there are two primary sources of hearing damage (excepting illness):
- Prolonged exposure to loud volumes
- Sudden spikes of loud volumes
Both sources can kill nerve endings in your inner ear, permanently damaging your hearing.
Headsets can be sources of both.
Let’s be clear: using a headset isn’t risky in the least, if you take the proper precautions. And thankfully, headset manufacturers make it easy for you to prevent hearing damage.
In this blog, we explore how headsets for VoIP protect your hearing.
Hearing Protection with Headsets
There are two potential sources of hearing damage caused by a headset: prolonged exposure and sudden spikes. Actually, these sources can be caused by anything — headphones, speakers, traffic, machinery, and more — but we’re only talking about headsets here.
There are regulations and headset features for dealing with both risks.
The most common regulation you’ll see is Australian: G616. This refers a set of guidelines from the Communications Alliance, which recommends specific limits to the sound pressure levels that a device should produce. The limit for sudden sounds in headsets is 102 dB, which is stricter than the 118 dB typical recommendation from US sources. 102 dB is roughly the loudness of an outboard motor or a snowmobile.
Just know this: if a headset says it follows G616, Australian protection, or something like that, it’s a good thing for your ears, mate.
(You might be wondering: why do we use an Australian guideline here in the US? We’re not 100% sure, but it seems to be simply because they researched audio hearing damage in the workplace thoroughly and the standard became widely adopted.)
VoIP headsets are great at protecting your hearing.
Let’s start with sudden spikes of volume. This problem is easy to understand, and it’s a common problem everywhere. Ever been watching a YouTube video and have an ad suddenly start, way louder than the video you were watching? Yeah.
A VoIP headset protects your ears from sudden spikes in the logical way: by setting a cap on the decibel level that the headset can produce.
You might see this called anti-startle technology. Jabra calls their version PeakStop, which limits sounds to 118 dB. But you can adjust this limit in the settings, for example, by choosing G616 protection. Yealink calls it, simply, Anti-Startle Protection and gives you a choice between Peak Block Protection and G616.
Poly incorporates all their hearing protection technologies into SoundGuard Digital, including their solution for long-term sound exposure.
Prolonged exposure to loud sound can be just as damaging as a sudden, loud sound. The recommended average decibel limit is typically 85 dB for an 8-hour period (what’s called the time-weighted average). That’s what OSHA and the NIOSH recommend.
Jabra calls their solution for this problem IntelliTone. You can choose your level: 85 dB, 82 dB, or 79 dB. Yealink, keeping it simple again, calls it Daily Noise Exposure and lets you choose to have no limit (don’t do this), 80 dB, or 85 dB.
Jabra bundles PeakStop and IntelliTone into what they call SafeTone.
Jabra SafeTone 2.0 adds further smart features for protecting your hearing. Speech level normalization starts all calls at the same sound level, in case you raise the volume for a quiet call then forget to turn it back down. (Pretty much everyone forgets turn the volume back down.) BalancedVoice adjusts sound quality in louder environments, so you don’t need to raise the volume to understand what people are saying. And there are other improvements, too.
Where to Find Out What Hearing Protection a Headset Supports
How do you know what hearing protection a headset offers?
The best way to figure out what hearing protection is offered by the headset is to look in its datasheet. It can be a little tricky to find, so here are a few examples:
For the Jabra Evolve2 50, look under Audio > User hearing protection, where you’ll see that the headset supports “Jabra SafeTone™ including PeakStop™ and EU Noise at Work, G616”.
For the Poly Blackwire 8225, look under Environmental > Acoustic protection technology, where you’ll it supports SoundGuard Digital.
For the Yealink BH74, look under Audio, where you’ll see that it supports four features:
- Hearing Protection
- Peak Block Protection (EN50332)
- Australian G616 Protection (AU G616)
- Daily Noise Exposure Protection
These examples should help you find the information on any datasheet.
What About Active Noise Cancellation?
A question you might be asking: does active noise cancellation protect your ears?
Active noise cancellation (ANC) is one of the most desired features for VoIP headsets. ANC means the headset uses a microphone or microphone array to pick up ambient noise. The headset then produces counter-noise to camouflage the ambient noise.
ANC is not a hearing protection technology. It doesn’t set a limit on the actual decibel levels you hear.
Having a headset with time-weighted and peak sound level limits is the only way to ensure you don’t damage your hearing.
How Do You Adjust a Headset’s Hearing Protection Settings?
To modify a headset’s hearing protection settings, you’ll need to go into its device management app. These might be a desktop app, browser-based web app, or mobile app. The headset manufacturers provide them, and they’re all free (as far we know).
Actually, these free apps are really useful to know about beyond hearing protection. They’re also how you update the headset’s firmware, enable sidetone (if supported), and more.
Here are links to the relevant apps for Jabra, Poly, and Yealink (external links):
In Jabra Direct, you just need to go to the headset’s Settings.
In Poly Lens, go to Device Settings > Advanced.
In Yealink USB Connect, go to Device Settings > Advanced Settings > Hearing Protection.